On March 11th, 1895, or thereabouts, a masterclass of American comedy was born in Brooklyn, New York. His name was Samuel Horowitz. You may not know his real name, but you may be familiar with his stage name: Shemp, also known by most as “the Fourth Stooge.” Hell, let us be honest: You may not even know his stage name, being that over the years he sadly has been continuously upstaged by Moe, Larry, and Curly (“The Three Stooges”); and, on some level, that is why Burt Kearns has written the book SHEMP!: The Biography of The Three Stooges’ Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy. Kearns claims Shemp, although more prolific as a performer, hardly ever got the spotlight; and Kearns’ magnificent and informative new biography is making sure said spotlight gets turned towards a man deemed as the ugliest actor in Hollywood.
This moniker may seem cruel; however, as Kearns points out, in 1942, “the title of ‘ugliest man’ was actually one that some celebrities sought” (151). It would drum up publicity for the films that specific actor starred in, and it gave the actor himself a great deal of attention, especially if he embraced it and used it to his advantage to get more jobs. According to Kearns, Shemp “earned that face” (151) after years of getting slapped around by his co-stars, most especially his real-life brother and Three Stooges business manager, Moe (Moses Horowitz); so, Shemp was quite proud of his looks and, as it turns out, his many successes. In his decades long career, Shemp starred in just about two-hundred short films and feature-length films, primarily as a well-known character actor in bit parts where he was generally the comic relief. The beauty of Kearns’ work is he recognizes how much of a contribution Shemp made on the silver screen by pointing out the number of jobs he did have in his career, and he presents Shemp as the most talented entertainer out of all of them, a compelling argument made before the book even has a chance to conclude.

This review will be in Bright Lights Film Journal in the coming weeks. Look out for it!
DOUG

SHEMP! by Burt Kearns is a deep dive int Shemp Howard’s life based off the little information we have of him, film records, and disproving details given in other accounts of his life. You can tell the author is passionate about the subject. I’ve loved the stooges since I was a kid and really enjoyed this book. I learned more details about Shemp’s career that I never knew as. I always focused on the stooges versus other aspects of their lives. At times, however, I was pulled out of the narrative when the author was disproving things said about Shemp, especially things said by Moe. Overall, a great dive into Shemp’s career.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting story and gave me an interesting perspective of the Stooges. I grew up watching these movies and shows and have loved watching them again when I can find one.

A bit too long on the theatrical history, and not enough personal stories. While I did enjoy parts of the book, others I breezed through for the reasons I mentioned. This is a great book for fans of the Three Stooges or old movie buffs. A lot of work and research went into writing this.

This is kind of hard one to review. Yes you do learn a lot about Shemp early vaudeville days and two reelers. Lets of detail here that I didn't know. Was extremely funny talent man.
As far as when he hooks up with the stooges I felt there was not a lot of information that has already been said. The author seems to not believe a lot of stuff written in the Mo Howard biography or at least took issues with his book.